Atlanta Negligent Security Lawyer

If you were shot, stabbed, or sexually assaulted at an apartment complex, hotel, or business that failed to maintain a safe environment, Georgia law allows you to hold that owner accountable in civil court. The criminal prosecution deals with the attacker. Your claim against the property owner is a separate matter, and an Atlanta, GA negligent security lawyer from our firm handles that claim from investigation through trial.

Gilbert Deitch has litigated these cases since 1970. Andrew Rogers has done so since 1988. Schedule a free consultation with our firm to review what happened and what the property owner should have done to prevent it.

Negligent Security Lawyer Atlanta, GA

A negligent security lawyer represents people who were attacked on someone else’s property and builds a civil case against the owner, manager, or security company that left the premises unsafe. That work begins with the property’s history. We pull prior police calls, incident reports, and internal maintenance records to show what the owner knew about crime on and around the property before you were hurt. Then we compare that knowledge with what the owner actually did about it. Broken gates, dark parking areas, unstaffed entrances, and ignored complaints are the common threads.

The City of Atlanta reported 17 homicides through early April 2026, down from 48 over the same period in 2022. Shootings, robberies, and assaults still occur on private property throughout the city. When they do, the question for a negligent security attorney is whether the owner took reasonable steps to prevent them.

Types of Negligent Security Cases We Handle in Atlanta, GA

Negligent security claims arise wherever a property owner invites the public in and then fails to protect them. Our cases come from apartment complexes, hotels, retail parking lots, bars, and workplaces across Atlanta. Each setting raises its own evidence questions, and our negligent security attorneys have litigated these claims for decades.

• Apartment shootings. Complexes with broken access gates, burned-out lighting, and cameras that don’t record draw the same offenders back repeatedly. We obtain the property’s police call history and prior incident files to show that management knew about the danger and did nothing meaningful to address it.
• Apartment sexual assaults. Faulty door locks, unsecured breezeways, and careless key control let intruders reach residents inside their own homes. A landlord who received earlier complaints about the same building faces serious exposure.
• Hotel shootings. Hotels and motels that skip guest screening, tolerate known trouble, or leave parking decks unwatched become sites for robberies and shootings. We examine staffing levels, surveillance coverage, and how the property responded to earlier police calls.
• Hotel sexual assaults. A guest attacked inside a room or hallway often has a claim against the operator when key card systems failed, staff let strangers upstairs, or a problem guest was allowed to stay. We move fast to preserve footage before the system overwrites it.
• Parking lot sexual assaults. Retail centers, office buildings, and transit lots with poor lighting and no patrol leave people exposed on the walk to their cars. Prior incidents in the same lot are usually the strongest evidence that the attack was foreseeable.
• Bar and restaurant crimes. Overserving, understaffed doors, and fights that spill outside all point back to the operator’s decisions. We look at door staff training, prior citations, and whether management called police when trouble started.
• Gas station injuries. Late-night stations with blind corners, no attendant visibility, and a record of robberies are a recurring source of claims in our practice. Corporate ownership and franchise agreements often determine who answers for the failure.
• Workplace violence. An employer or building owner who ignores threats, lets terminated workers keep their access badges, or provides no way to lock down the premises can be liable when violence follows. Who is responsible depends on who controlled the premises and made the security decisions.

Why Choose Deitch + Rogers as my Negligent Security Lawyer in Atlanta, GA?

Trial Results Against Negligent Property Owners

Our firm has recovered more than $200 million for crime victims and their families in cases against property owners, businesses, and institutions that failed to keep people safe. Results in negligent security and premises liability matters include:

• $15 million settlement for a sexual assault at an apartment complex
• $10 million recovery after a shooting on commercial property
• $9.75 million for a shooting victim left paralyzed
• $5.1 million verdict in a hotel shooting wrongful death case
• $2.5 million for a sexual assault tied to inadequate apartment security

We take every case on a contingent fee. Our firm advances the cost of investigation, consultants, and litigation. Those expenses and our fee are paid from the recovery, not from you up front.

Attorneys Who Have Tried These Cases in Georgia Courts

Andrew Rogers, a 1988 graduate of Georgia State University College of Law, holds the highest premises liability verdicts in Georgia for 2013, 2014, 2018, and 2019. He is a charter member of the National Crime Victim Bar Association and belongs to the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association. Super Lawyers selected him each year from 2016 through 2024. Gilbert Deitch founded our firm and has represented crime victims since earning his law degree from the University of Tennessee in 1970. He has published on premises liability in TRIAL Magazine, the Georgia State Bar Journal, and Crime Victims’ Litigation Quarterly. He has also discussed victims’ rights on NBC Nightly News and ABC’s 20/20. Both are admitted before all Georgia courts and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. That record is what you should expect from a premises liability lawyer when the owner’s insurer refuses to pay.

What Is Important to Understand About a Negligent Security Case?

Damages, Liability, and Compensation for Negligent Security Cases

Liability starts with a duty. Georgia requires an owner or occupier who invites the public onto the premises to use ordinary care in keeping the property and its approaches safe. For crimes committed by third parties, the General Assembly rewrote that standard in 2025. Under Senate Bill 68, a claim arising on or after April 21, 2025 requires proof that the owner either had a particularized warning of imminent wrongful conduct or reasonably should have known an attack was likely based on prior, substantially similar incidents. The jury must also assign a share of fault to the attacker. Supporters pointed to rising insurance costs as the reason for the change. Injuries that occurred before that date are governed by the prior law.

A successful claim can recover:

• Medical bills, including future treatment
• Lost wages and reduced earning capacity
• Counseling and therapy costs
• Pain, suffering, and emotional trauma
• Funeral expenses and the full value of the life lost in a wrongful death claim
• Punitive damages when the owner’s conduct showed willful misconduct or conscious indifference to safety

The Georgia Crime Victims Compensation Program may cover some immediate expenses while the civil case proceeds.

What Are Important Aspects of a Negligent Security Case?

Two things decide most of these cases: what the owner knew, and what the owner did about it. Every piece of evidence we gather is aimed at one of those two questions. A civil claim doesn’t wait for the criminal case to finish, and it can proceed even when no arrest is ever made.

• Prior crime on and near the property, documented through police reports and 911 call logs
• Physical conditions such as broken gates, missing locks, and dark walkways that made the attack easier to carry out
• Surveillance footage, and whether the cameras were working, monitored, or ignored
• Security staffing, patrol logs, and the contract between the owner and any security company
• Your status on the property, since Georgia applies a stricter standard to social guests than to tenants and customers

What Is the Negligent Security Case Timeline?

Georgia gives you two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. In a wrongful death case, the same two-year period runs from the date of death. That filing deadline can be shorter when a government entity owns the property, so the date of the incident matters from the first conversation. A typical case moves through these stages:

• Investigation and evidence preservation in the first weeks, including written demands that the property retain footage and records
• Filing suit and serving the owner, the management company, and any security contractor
• Discovery, which runs six months or longer and includes depositions of property staff and corporate representatives
• Mediation or settlement negotiations once the liability evidence is developed
• Trial, if the owner’s insurer will not offer fair value

What Should You Bring to Your Negligent Security Consultation?

Bring what you have. Missing items won’t stop us from evaluating the claim.

• The incident or report number from the Atlanta Police Department or the responding agency
• Photos of the scene, your injuries, and any broken locks, gates, or lighting
• Names of witnesses, neighbors, or employees who saw what happened
• Medical records and bills to date
• Your lease, hotel receipt, or other proof of why you were on the property

The consultation is free and confidential. We’ll review the facts and explain how the 2025 changes apply to your date of injury. Then we’ll tell you plainly whether we believe the claim is worth pursuing.

Reach Out to Deitch + Rogers to Schedule a Consultation

Surveillance systems overwrite footage on a schedule, and property staff move on. Early contact with an Atlanta negligent security attorney protects that evidence. There’s no charge to speak with us, and you pay no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for you. Contact us online to arrange a free case review. We respond to new inquiries promptly and meet with clients at a time that works for them.